Two children and a woman were injured on Sunday after groups of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers, accompanied by Israeli occupation forces, carried out a series of coordinated attacks against Palestinian residents and shepherds across several communities in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
Local media activist Osama Makhamra said the attacks began in the Rujum ‘Ali area, where a colonizer driving a four‑wheeler ran over the child Abdul‑Karim Mousa al‑Adra, causing injuries that required his transfer to the hospital.
During the same assault, colonizers beat another child, Salah Ismael al‑Adra, who was evacuated by a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance to Yatta Governmental Hospital. A woman was also assaulted during the attack.
Makhamra added that the colonizers continued roaming the area throughout the day, chasing shepherds, and releasing their livestock into cultivated fields and among olive and almond trees, causing extensive agricultural damage.
He said these actions have become a daily pattern, with colonizers repeatedly releasing their herds between the villages and hamlets of Masafer Yatta and eastern Yatta in what residents describe as an effort to destroy Palestinian crops and pressure families to leave.
Furthermore, a group of colonizers wearing military‑style uniforms detained six Palestinians near Khirbet al‑Fakhit, assaulted and abused them, and then released them after firing shots into the air to intimidate nearby residents.
In addition, Israeli colonizers erected a tent on Sunday evening just meters from a Palestinian home in Jabal Johar, east of Hebron, in what residents say is a clear step toward expanding the outpost known as “Havat Gad.”
The move came as colonizers continued their repeated assaults on the family living in the home and on other residents in the area.
Resident Sadeq Younes Idris told reporters that colonizers have been carrying out daily attacks on the house where his family lives, as part of ongoing attempts to seize the property and expand the outpost, which was established roughly two years ago on privately owned Palestinian land in Jabal Johar.
Idris stated that the colonizers set up a tent only a few meters from his home, accompanied by Israeli occupation forces.
He added that soldiers threatened to shoot him if he approached the tent or the colonizers stationed around it.
Idris expressed deep concern for the safety of his family, noting that colonizers assaulted him the previous day, breaking his arm, and also injured his daughter, who sustained bruises and wounds during the attack.
Residents in the area warn that the establishment of the tent signals an imminent expansion of the outpost and an escalation in colonizer violence targeting Palestinian families in the eastern part of Hebron.
In a separate incident, colonizers infiltrated a sheep pen belonging to Emad Houshiya in Khirbet al‑Markaz and attempted to steal a herd of livestock. Residents spotted the group and forced them to flee before they could take the animals.
Later Sunday evening, another group of colonizers invaded Khirbet Sida al‑Tha‘la in Masafer Yatta and threw stones at Palestinian homes.
Makhamra said the colonizers conducted a provocative tour around the residential area and hurled stones toward the houses, though no injuries were reported.
In a related incident, several Palestinians suffered from tear‑gas inhalation after Israeli occupation forces invaded the town of Dura, south of Hebron, firing gas canisters at residents and their vehicles and forcing shop owners to close their businesses.
Israeli soldiers also invaded Deir Samit town, southwest of Hebron, and forced the Palestinians to close their shops.
In the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli colonizers attacked farmers in Aqraba, southeast of Nablus, while they were cultivating their land.
Later, the colonizers attacked the home of Munther Shreida in the al‑Shajara area of Duma, southeast of Nablus, damaging the windows of the house.
Residents and local officials across the Hebron and Nablus districts warn that these incidents reflect a widening pattern of daily, coordinated attacks by colonizers seeking to expand outposts, restrict Palestinian access to farmland, and pressure rural communities across the occupied West Bank.
On Saturday, Israeli colonizers carried out numerous attacks resulting in the injury of several Palestinian citizens in the West Bank governorates of Nablus, Ramallah, and Hebron. Colonizers also invaded the village of Mikhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, while soldiers assaulted foreign activists and declared the area a closed military zone.
On Friday, Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers carried out a series of coordinated attacks across several areas of the occupied West Bank, targeting cemeteries, mosques, agricultural land, and Palestinian communities in Jenin in the northern West Bank, Nablus in the northern West Bank, and Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.
Also on Friday, Israeli occupation forces carried out invasions in Qalqilia in the northwestern West Bank, Ramallah in the central West Bank, Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, Jenin in the northern West Bank, Tubas in the northeastern West Bank, and the Qalandia refugee camp north of occupied Jerusalem.
On Friday evening, the army carried out multiple invasions across the Hebron district, firing toxic tear gas at residents, assaulting civilians, damaging property, and abducting a Palestinian man during a home invasion in Dura.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147 prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
